OR GALLERY
Media Release June 2, 1992

Jean MacRae: Two Walking Days
JUNE 9 TO 27, 1992

The Or Gallery begins its summer programming with a new installation by Vancouver artist Jean MacRae entitled Two Walking Days. This project consists of twelve blue prints arranged consecutively around the gallery walls. On the left side of each blueprint is a knitted cotton square with a different object/ view imaged onto each one. On the right hand side are knitting instructions on how to achieve each square. The language used in the instructions imitates that of a knitting book, while inserting additional references to site, location, distance and time. The instructions make clear that the activities of walking between time defined sites and outdoor knitting (as a condensation of distance into an object) are meant to reveal a kind of systematic, obsessive measuring of the subjects roaming, as well as, reflecting his/her negotiation of the urban grid. Jean MacRae’s interest in mapping strategies juxtaposes traditional surveying techniques with the phenomenological aspects of how each person maps both mentally and physically, him/herself against the sedimented physical, social and political structures represented in the broad concept of urban space.

Two Walking Days, an installation of new work at the Or Gallery, will be Jean MacRae’s first solo exhibition since graduating with a double major in Geography and Visual arts from Simon Fraser University.